Basketball used to be simple. Back when James Naismith invented the sport in 1891, the game looked very different. Players didn’t dribble. There were no three-pointers. Here’s the craziest part of all: there weren’t even positions. Teams had this weird idea that they could just play their five best players.
Nowadays everyone has a position. Expectant fathers stare at ultrasound pictures trying to figure out if their child will be a post player like daddy. Even the chubby 40-year-old guy at the park freaks out when you tell him to give up the ball because he can’t dribble. Read More »
When you think of dunk contests, there are several years which come to mind. 1985, when MJ and ‘Nique battled it out. Or 2000, when Vince Carter turned it into a one-man show. Or 1998, when things got crazy in St. Louis.
What’s that? You don’t know about 1998? Aw, son. Let me tell you what went down in St. Lizzy. Read More »
In the fall of 2000, a seemingly ordinary 21-year-old enrolled at a small college in Michigan. He didn’t look like a basketball player, and he certainly didn’t have the credentials, but he said he wanted a chance to play. He lobbied the coaches and earned a spot on the school’s JV team.
In the next three months he would destroy half the junior colleges in Detroit. Read More »
Go ahead. Make your jokes. Tell him he sucks. Laugh about T-Mac straddling him like a cowboy after dunking in his grill. Laugh about Space Jam. Say it was the highlight of his career. Forget about the 2,119 blocks. Forget that he always put himself in the way, even if it meant 20 or 30 posters. Death Stick don’t care.
Somewhere in Utah, there’s a man riding a custom chopper through the bucolic streets, completely at peace with the game of basketball. He doesn’t need your pity, and I’ll tell you why. Read More »
The story doesn’t begin on Saturday night. It doesn’t end there, either. But it’s where we have to start.
Saturday night, in a darkened gym on the darkest night he had ever known, the boy shot jumpers for hours. First his coach found him. Then the assistant coach came at midnight. All they could do was rebound for him. Rebound and let the healing take its course. Read More »
Basketball doesn’t always feel like it should. Sometimes it feels diluted. Sometimes it just feels off. Maybe it’s the angles. Everybody has one. Someone is always worried about numbers. Someone is always worried about legacy. Someone is always worried about ego.
In times like these, it helps to find a stronger version of hoops. And by stronger, I mean smaller. Read More »
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